Mark White

When you were a little kid, Father’s Day shopping wasn’t very hard. You would make your dad a homemade card or something and your mom would go out and get him a new necktie or bottle of aftershave lotion or something along those lines. When you get to be an adult, you might get your dad something useful, such as a leaf blower. (Remember to pick out one that you like and might want to borrow or possibly have re-gifted to you a year or two later…LOL.) However, when your dad gets up into his senior years – if you are fortunate enough to still have him around – getting him...

A few years back, after the News Journal qualified to get a Kentucky Press Association summer intern, I was going through a stack of about 20 resumes and one of them will forever standout and not for good reasons. The college student listed only one reference, “mom.” There wasn’t even a name for the reference, just “mom” listed. I also remember that she had a vehicle, but did not possess a valid license, which was a little odd in and of itself. Suffice it to say that we did not even call her to interview for the position. We have had a few summer interns that have stood out over the years....

“War, uh, yeah. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again,” Edwin Starr sang in the 1970 number one hit song “War, which was a renowned anti-Vietnam War anthem. One could say much the same thing about tornadoes, like the ones that ripped through Laurel County and five other counties on May 16-17. Statewide the tornadoes on that date killed 19 people, including 17 in Laurel County alone. The EF-4 tornado in Laurel County also damaged an estimated 1,500 homes and tore apart countless lives. As of May 30, 280 of those homes were classified as totally destroyed, 195 homes had major damage, 133 homes were classified with minor...

Of all the disasters that strike, I have never been able to make much sense out of tornadoes. When you have heavy rains, rivers flood all around them. A wildfire consumes pretty much everything in its path until it runs out of fuel or is extinguished. Tornadoes are a different beast entirely. I just don’t get the randomness. When the meteorological conditions get just right, a tornado will form in one spot but not in another spot a mile away. Sometimes a tornado will level one house but the house next door to it will only have a couple of roof shingles blown off at worst. Other times tornadoes will level pretty much...

Misconceptions. People have a lot of them, which is pretty evident based on some of the comments we get on social media to stories that we have posted. Let me offer a few examples. A couple of weeks ago we had a story about the old King’s Truck Stop property at Exit 29 in Southern Laurel County being annexed into the Corbin city limits. Devin McKeehan wrote on Facebook, “City of Corbin isn’t going to do anything with it. The city can’t even fix the streets and sidewalks downtown.” Lue Anne wrote, “Can’t wait for another gas station.” Danny Clark wrote, “I’ve watched the city of Corbin since the 70s. They will not do...

I thought I would take the opportunity in this week’s column to brag on some local folks, who have received awards for various accomplishments or who will soon be receiving awards or who have received some recognitions. In case you missed it, WYMT reporter Buddy Forbes did a nice story Thursday on retired News Journal Publisher Don Estep being selected to receive the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation’s Media and Technology Award. Here is a link to the story at https://www.wymt.com/2025/04/17/retired-corbin-newsman-receives-eklf-media-technology-award/. Don will receive his award on April 24 during the East Kentucky Leadership Conference on the Manchester campus of Eastern Kentucky University. I am happy to see my friend and former...

The City of London is losing a staple of the community, but whether local residents in London and elsewhere heed this as a warning to support other community businesses instead of shopping online or at a big box discounters remains to be seen. “Laurel Grocery Company has been a proud provider of wholesale groceries to independent grocers in Kentucky and surrounding states for 103 years. Yet challenging market conditions, due in part to the rise of big box discounters and growing competition by e-commerce, have presented serious challenges to our business model. After exploring a number of options to improve our position, we have made the difficult decision to close...

Once or twice a decade, Whitley County gets a murder case too horrendous to ever forget. I am talking one of those that bothers pretty much everybody, who knows much at all about it, and you have to fight back feelings of outrage when you think about it. The killing of three-year-old Amoura Smallwood is one of those cases. She died on Feb. 19, 2023. The official cause of death was blunt force injuries to her little head and body due to non-accidental injuries, but this doesn’t really come close to describing what actually happened to her. When first responders got to the little girl, who wasn’t breathing at the time, her...

Congratulations to Forcht Broadcasting Radio and Digital President and CEO Neil Middleton, who was awarded the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Award for Outstanding Service during the Kentucky Sweet 16® boys basketball tournament last Thursday. Middleton was honored for his four-decade career in Eastern Kentucky sports media. Starting his television career at WYMT in 1987, Middleton’s recognition comes for his contributions and media coverage to schools, coaches, players and fans throughout his storied career. Middleton was the long-time director of the WYMT Mountain Basketball Classic and served as a board member for several organizations in Kentucky’s Appalachian region, including: the Center for Rural Development, One East Kentucky, Alice...

Back before a United States Supreme Court ruling in 1999 that prohibited police from bringing members of the news media into private homes, I accompanied police numerous times as they were executing search warrants. Usually they were looking for drugs. Let me clarify here that by accompany I mean I was usually inside the homes less than five minutes after police kicked in the doors. I am not going to lie. It was pretty exciting, particularly when you are 20-something, single and don’t have anybody waiting for you at home asking where have you been half the night. I was usually at the police department about an hour or so before they left...